Parentage: The Guzmania variety ‘G9197’ originated as a naturally occurring, whole-plant mutation of Guzmania ‘Voila’ (not patented). The inventor of ‘G9197’ is a commercial ornamental plant producer whom has produced ‘Voila’ for many years. As early as 2006, the inventor was actively monitoring for, and selecting mutations of, ‘Voila’ at his greenhouse operation in Kudelstaart, The Netherlands. Said mutations were selected on criteria such as compactness of the plant, inflorescence color, size of the inflorescence, compactness of the inflorescence, and foliage color. The variety now called ‘G9197’ was initially discovered in August of 2009 as one such mutation of the parent plant. For a small number of those mutations which exhibited commercial potential, including ‘G9197’, mericloning was initiated at a commercial laboratory in Roelofarendsveen, Netherlands. The resulting plantlets of each candidate variety were subsequently grown to a mature size. From these mature plants, a small number of basal offshoots were harvested from each variety, replanted, and again grown to a mature size for further evaluation. After further observation, the variety now called ‘G9197’ was finally selected in 2012 for its unique foliage and inflorescence characteristics.
Asexual Reproduction: ‘G9197’ was first asexually propagated by meristematic tissue culture in 2010 at a commercial laboratory in Roelofarendsveen, Netherlands. ‘G9197’ has since been asexually reproduced through seven additional generation by way of vegetative propagation using basal offshoots harvested from germplasm stock plants. Through these subsequent generations, the unique features of this cultivar have been stable and reproduced true to type.